Tag / concert

25 years ago today Depeche Mode stood in front of 70,000 people and performed their most important concert. This is when music mattered. This is when underground synthesizer music took over. Depeche Mode showed the world that they were no niche. I was in the front row and backstage. I never heard a crowd so loud. I doubt a crowd ever loved a band as much as on that night in California.

“The largest but also the most prestigious concert we’ve ever played as a headline act.” – Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode)

There will be a Theremin concert next Wednesday, March 27th in New York City. It will take place at Joe’s Pub at the Public theater on 425 Lafayette Street. The show starts at 9:30PM. I think I will go to this one!

“Performances on Theremin by: Dorit Chrysler, Benjamin Ickies, Scott Robinson, Rob Schwimmer, & special guest Joe McGinty on Therevox. We are pleased to continue the NY Theremin Society’s concert series by announcing an exciting line-up of accomplished Theremin Virtuosos to perform March 27th at Joe’s Pub. Thereminists include Dorit Chrysler, Benjamin Ickes, Rob Schwimmer and Scott Robinson as well as special guest Joe McGinty on Therevox. Each player has their own unique style and approach to the instrument making for a night full of contrasts and musical surprises. ATTENTION: May contain some very rare theremin duetting or trios! Join the growing movement of infatuation with the Theremin in the 21st century!” – thereminworld.com

If I could go to any upcoming concert the Short Circuit Electronic Music Festival would be it. A vacation to London is out for next month but this is one event very much blog post worthy. This event is all about the iconic Mute. There will be music from Nitzer Ebb, Richie Hawtin (Minus, Berlin) With Visuals By Ali Demirel, Daniel Miller (Dj Set), Komputer, Martin L. Gore (Dj Set), Moby (Dj Set), Recoil, Alison Moyet (Special Guest), Laibach, T.Raumschmiere, Thomas Brinkmann, Erasure And Special Guests, Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (Dj Set) and more. There will also be a Schneiders Beuro installation, “Dirty Electronics” Workshop and Gareth Jones will talk on Producing Mute Artists. May 13-14.

“Short Circuit Electronic Music Festival returns with two days hosted by the influential label Mute. In a celebration of Mute’s unique culture this event will include performances from artists past, present and future plus installations, films, talks and more.” – roundhouse.org.uk

I’ve always thought Gary Numan was highly underrated. Go back today and listen through his albums and see if you don’t agree. Honest loud real analog synths and interesting vocals. They don’t make them like they used to.

“Gary Numan (born Gary Webb on 8 March 1958) is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” (with Tubeway Army) and “Cars”. One of the first musicians to use electronic synthesizers successfully in rock music, his signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals. Commercially unsuccessful for many years of his career, Numan is nevertheless considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music. His use of themes from science fiction, and his combination of aggressive punk energy with electronics, have since been widely imitated.” – Wikipedia.org

I performed at CBGBs three times. Two of those times were for events I threw myself. It was a nice accomplishment to take the same stage as so many great (and totally crap) bands before me. The above slideshow contains some photos of the clubs dismantling earlier this year.

“In February 2008 Raymond shot some beautiful and haunting photos of the shell the legendary New York rock club CBGB & OMFUG as it was in the process of being converted into a John Varvatos clothing boutique.” – Laughing Squid

Above is a photo I took on Saturday night during soundcheck. I played at Club Maria in Berlin. It was packed and overall a great evening. Other acts included Thomas P. Heckman, Adam X, Luc Van Acker and Dan Monox. If you click the photo it will take you to it’s flickr page where I labeled each piece of gear using the “notes” feature.

The show is an hour long and a woman named “Festes Weiss” is on stage with me. When I run around the stage she takes over the computer. She also sings two songs in the set. As mentioned in this post there is a video that plays in sync with the music during the entire show. Ableton Live controls everything. There are several audio channels of music, a video channel and a mic channel with several effects on it. I use an M-Audio Firewire 410 audio interface which outputs directly to the house or DJ mixer. I have the venue prepare a monitoring system for me which I control from the Firewire 410’s system preference control panel. I use a Shure PGX-24 cordless microphone system connected to Continue reading →